Just Read the Cards
by BryannaB709
Summary: Effie Trinket wasn't always sunshine and rainbows. Underneath all of the smiles and colors and crazy wigs, there's a lot of hurt and knowledge and scars. This is the story of how Effie Trinket became District 12's least favorite Reaping girl. Rated K plus for torture. Exactly 2,000 words.


_A/N:_ I thought of the idea for this story after seeing the scene in Catching Fire where Katniss and Peeta give the speech in District 11. Enjoy, I guess. :)

 _Disclaimer:_ I don't own anything. Not even this computer.

* * *

Effie Trinket, age four, youngest daughter of President Snow himself, sat on the fluffy carpet in front of the large television screen, her eyes fixed on the woman speaking on the screen.

Her mother, the woman speaking on the screen wearing bright purple clothing (and a wig), said in her chipper voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the forty-third annual Hunger Games!"

Effie smiled, and said, "Daddy, I want to help with the Hunger Games, just like Mommy!"

President Snow looked down at his little daughter, and just smiled.

* * *

Effie Trinket, age twenty-one, looked into her mirror, and primped her hair one last time.

She looked at herself in her pretty, pink (her favorite!) outfit, and smiled.

She muttered to herself, "You're going to go on that stage, and everyone is going to love you."

She straightened her collar one last time, and walked out onto the stage.

She swallowed, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the sixtieth annual Hunger Ga-"

Her words caught in her throat as she saw the crowd and the people in it.

She looked around her at the dirty walls, and the grey sky.

She gasped, and looked back down at the sunken eyes of the people in the crowd.

They glared back at her, and she screamed.

Effie tried to run off the stage, but two Peacekeepers grabbed her shoulders, and drug her back into the backstage.

* * *

Effie, still dressed in her pink outfit and wig, stormed into her father's office, and yelled, "Why did you hide this from us?!"

President Snow just gazed over the top of his glasses, and said, "What am I hiding?"

Effie yelled hysterically, "The districts aren't _prosperous_! They're _falling apart_! People there are _starving_ while we throw food up to eat more! They're living in _shacks_ while we're living in _mansions_!"

President Snow just said to the Peacekeepers behind Effie, "Take care of her."

Effie's eyes widened in desperation as they grabbed her shoulders, and screamed, "Father, please, _please don't_ , please! I won't tell _anyone PLEASE_!"

But the guards drug her into a small room in the far corner of the mansion that they had _never_ been allowed to explore, a corner of the mansion where no-one would be around to hear her scream.

* * *

Effie sat in her new room, a drab replacement for her former life as the President's daughter, dabbing a small bit of concealer on her black eye.

She hummed to herself, "They can't hurt me if I just read the cards. Stick to the program, and they can't hurt me. Just go on the stage, and draw the names. Smile, look pretty, ignore the glares the crowd is giving you in return for condemning their children to a long a bloody death, and walk away, and pretend that you're plastic."

She laughed a hysterical laugh, and dabbed more concealer onto the stitches on her chin.

She put on her round, white wig, and straightened her brooch.

She said to herself in her high-pitched, stage voice, "Time to get on the train to District 12, and pick those tributes!"

But, somewhere, deep inside the part of her that hadn't been broken, she felt like this was all wrong.

* * *

Effie walked on the stage at District 12 for the second time to re-do the Reaping.

She flinched a tiny bit at the sight of all the dirt-smothered people, but she just widened her smile, and delivered her lines.

She drew the names (those poor children), and led them onto the train.

They glared at her, as if she had any choice in this, but she just kept smiling, and brought them to the Capital and their doom.

She watched it all happen.

The one time they weren't watching her.

The time when she watched the beginning of the Games.

The horn blared, and the District 12 tributes were petrified.

Effie held her breath and prayed that they would make it through the day.

But one tribute chased them both down with an ax, and finished them both off within five seconds of the Bloodbath.

Effie shed a tear in their honor, and officially wore black the rest of the Games.

* * *

Effie, age thirty-five, sat in front of her usual mirror at District 12, and looked over her pink outfit one last time before she went on-stage.

She slapped on a fake smile, and walked onto the familiar stage.

She widened her smile, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Seventy-Forth Annual Hunger Games!"

She walked over to the glass bowl on her left, and said, "Ladies first."

She pretended to dig around for a slip of paper, but she secretly selected the pre-designated name in the bowl, knowing that if she didn't pick the right name, the Peacekeepers behind her would make sure she didn't make it home.

She plucked it out, and walked back to her microphone.

She unfolded the slip of paper in her long talon-like nails, and annunciated the name clearly, "Primrose Everdeen."

Out in the crowd, an small girl of twelve stepped into the aisle, with a look of pure horror written clearly across her face.

Effie's heart ached as she thought, "Poor girl," but on the outside, she widened her smile.

But out in the crowd, a person who appeared to be Primrose's older sister started screaming, and finally yelled, " _I volunteer_!"

Effie quickly listed through her head what the lines were for a volunteer were, then said, "Well, it looks like, for the first time in District 12, we have a volunteer!"

The young woman walked onto the stage, and Effie asked for her name.

She said shakily into the mike, "K-Katniss Everdeen."

Effie smiled, then said, "And I would bet that that's your sister!"

Katniss nodded, and said, "Yes."

Effie just pressed, "And now for the boys."

She walked over to the other glass bowl, and drew a name.

She unfolded the slip of paper, and read clearly, "Peeta Malark."

A heavy-set, blonde boy walked onto the stage, and stared coldly into the crowd.

Effie smiled, and said, "Shake hands."

They both firmly shook each other's hand, then walked into their rooms to say good-bye to their loved ones.

* * *

On the train, Effie walked behind Katniss, who was sitting with her knees close to her chest, and said softly, "I'm sorry."

Katniss turned around, and said coldly, "You don't know how horrible it is, living in a district. Being constantly controlled by the Capital."

Effie said, "Yes I do. I do know how horrible it is, constantly being controlled by them."

She sat down beside her, and started pouring her feelings.

"I've seen how horrible it is, I've seen what goes on in there, underneath all the frills and ruffles. It's terrible. It's horrifying."

She rested her head in her arms, and started to cry softly, rubbing off all of her concealer.

Katniss looked up, and saw Effie crying softly.

She looked a little closer, and saw the scars beneath her makeup start to show.

Katniss gasped, and said, "Effie, what did they do to you?"

Effie sniffed, and stuttered, "I found out."

Katniss frowned, and said, "What?"

Effie stuttered, "The first Reaping I did, they never show anything other than the stage on the television, so I-I didn't know what it was like, and I-I walked onto the stage, and I-I saw how horrible it was, and I panicked, they t-took me away, and th-they beat me until I promised I wouldn't tell anyone what I saw..."

She broke into sobs at the memory of that terrible night; when they dragged her away, limp and broken, muttering to herself, praying quietly, "I won't tell, I-I won't tell anyone..."

Katniss laid her hand on Effie's quivering shoulder, and said playfully, "Your mascara's running."

Effie smiled, and wiped her face with the backside of her glove.

* * *

Effie Trinket, age thirty-six, stood next to Katniss and Peeta inside the backstage in District 11.

She said, "Now, remember, smile, have fun, and _read the cards_."

She handed them a couple of cards each, and smiled.

She said, "Go on."

They walked on-stage, and Peeta started off at the podium.

Effie frowned as she saw that Katniss had blanched at the sight of Rue's family.

Peeta said a few words, then lowered his cards.

Effie gasped, and said, "Peeta put down the cards."

She knew from personal experience that putting down the cards was not ever a good idea.

He did a pretty good job, but when Katniss went up, and she said her words, it was all chaos from then.

The old man raised his two fingers, and whistled the four-note tune, and the rest of the mournful crowd followed.

The Peacekeepers marched into the crowd, and Katniss screamed, "NO! NO! LEAVE HIM ALONE, NO!"

But they grabbed him, wrestled him to the ground, and shot him in the head as Katniss and Peeta came back inside the building.

Effie gasped as the Peacekeepers started gunning down random members of the crowd, and Haymitch started yelling at Katniss and Peeta.

She said under her breath in a weak voice, "Why didn't you just stick to the cards?"

* * *

She almost died when her father read the card that announced the challenge for the third Quarter Quell.

Katniss stuttered, "I-I'm going back in."

Effie excused herself, and cried into her sheets.

* * *

Effie stood on the stage in her stunning butterfly dress, tears glistening in her eyes as she stood before the crowd for the Quell.

She faked a smile, and said, "Ladies first."

Placed on the table where the glass bowls would usually be was a singular slip of paper that Effie knew would hold Katniss's name.

She picked it up in her shaky hand, and unfolded it slowly.

She said clearly into the microphone, "K-Katniss Everdeen."

Katniss shed a single tear, and Effie almost lost it there, but she held her failing composure, and moved onto the boy's table.

She said shakily, "And now for the boys."

She picked one of the two slips of paper, and said, "Haymitch."

Peeta stepped forward, and said, "I volunteer."

Haymitch leaped forward, but Peeta stopped him.

Effie forced her lips (who wanted to sob) into a wide smile, and said as a few tears ran down her face, "And there you have it."

She turned around as soon as she was done, and said, "I-I can't do this anymore," and broke into heaving sobs.

* * *

Effie walked into the District 12 common room, carrying two boxes, and said, "I have gifts for the boys."

She handed one to Peeta and one to Hamich, and they opened them, revealing their golden tokens.

Haymitch said bluntly, "What is it?"

Effie said in a slightly offended tone, "It's your token."

She walked over to her chair, and said, "We are all a team."

On the word 'team', she broke into a small sob.

She said into her hands, "You two deserve better than this."

Katniss and Peeta both thought that she was referring to their fate.

But she was talking about herself.

She was mad at herself for being such a mess.

For never being able to keep it together at the right time.

She was mad at herself for not just reading the cards.

~ _Just Read the Cards_ ~

 _A/N:_ Please tell me what you thought! I love reviews! (And chocolate.)


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